The Sum of All Fears
by hxchick
Summary: What terrified Dave more than anything? Mild slash. Written for the July CCOAC challenge.


The Sum of All Fears

**~Written for the July Challenge at CCOAC. My movie is The Sum of All Fears and my pairing is Hotch/Rossi. **

**~This is my first attempt at slash, even though it's not very slashy, so please let me know what you think of it**

**~Slight spoilers for season 6**

* * *

As their SUV sped down the highway towards the cabin, David Rossi sighed in relief; the week had been a difficult one and he was glad that it was finally over. First, there was the serial rapist in Wichita, the rapist who'd trolled for teenage girls at one of the local high schools; that was a tough case and they'd solved it only after he'd gotten to another girl. If they had been ten minutes earlier they could have prevented a lifetime of bad memories for the girl, but the tip had come in too late. As it was they'd busted into the unsubs house only minutes after he'd committed the act and while the girl was still alive, she was understandably traumatized.

Unluckily for Dave, the team had completed their paperwork and had returned to Quantico just in time for him to teach a two-day class at the academy, one that discussed both the qualifications needed for becoming a senior field agent and the responsibilities and duties that went along with it. That alone would've been bad, but what had put the icing on top of that particular shit cake was his co-instructor, who was none other than Erin Strauss. While many of the attendees wanted to know about the BAU and some of their more famous cases, Erin insisted on sticking to the dull topics of the formal presentation. By the end of the second day, he was ready to use her for target practice. Because of the shitty week, he was exhausted and was looking forward to spending an entire weekend with his unit chief and lover, Aaron Hotchner, and his son Jack. He already had the night planned, plans which included a movie for Jack and lots of wine for him and Aaron.

Giving a deep sigh, he watched as scenery passed by in the twilight and he struggled to stay awake. He was just falling into a light doze when Aaron woke him up by speaking.

"So tomorrow's your birthday…" he trailed off, not knowing how to tell his lover what he needed to.

"Yeah, it is," Dave said, confused. Of course he knew the next day was his birthday, but Aaron knew he didn't want to do anything big for it. A hike around the property and a night in front of the fireplace was good enough for him.

"Um, right, so…" Aaron paused and took a deep breath, telling himself that the man in the seat next to him wouldn't actually kill him. "So, I'm not supposed to tell you this, but I don't want you pulling your sidearm and causing a bloodbath…" Again, he trailed off and he could see the confusion on Dave's face.

"Aaron, what are you talking about?" He asked and Hotch could hear the impatience in his voice. He decided to spit it out.

"Jack and Garcia planned a surprise birthday party for you. The team, your mother and father Jimmy are all waiting at the cabin for us."

Dave's expression changed from one of confusion to one of horror and he realized that a surprise birthday party on his 55th birthday was the sum of all of his fears. Before this, he would've said the sum of all of his fears was one of his wives announcing she was pregnant with sextuplets, or the world ending with a meteor strike or even his entire team dying because of a decision he made but now…now he knew that the sum of all his fears had been produced by a five year old and a slightly maniacal technical analyst.

"Are you shitting me?" He yelled. "You _knew_ I didn't want to do anything big for my birthday and you let that crazy woman plan a party for me? Not just a party, but a SURPRISE party?"

"It wasn't just Garcia," Hotch told him, "It was Jack too."

As they stopped at a four-way stop sign, Dave gave serious contemplation to jumping out of the car and he even went so far as to put his hand on the door handle, but as soon as he did it, Hotch hit the child locks. "I would be a pretty piss-poor profiler if I couldn't anticipate your jumping out of the car at your first chance," Hotch said dryly.

"Dammit Aaron! I _don't _want this!" He expected his lover to try and calm him down with pretty words and promises, which was why he was surprised to get one of his hellfire glares.

"Tough, Dave," he said firmly. "The team has had a horrible year, what with Emily being dead and then being alive again, JJ leaving and coming back and the budgetary threats to the team. If a surprise party will put some camaraderie back into our dynamic, then that's what we'll do! Besides, Jack was the one who thought of the party and _he _was the one who approached Garcia about it, not the other way around. Do you really want to disappoint a five year old boy who has already had so many hardships in his life?"

Dammit, Hotch was playing dirty by using his son as a guilt trip, but it worked. "No, of course not," he huffed as Hotch finally pulled away from the stop sign.

"Good," the unit chief said, with a nod of his head, "Then suck it up Rossi; I don't want to hear any complaining from you. It's sunshine and lollipops all night."

Dave snorted loudly, yeah, that wouldn't be happening; he might not be a surly asshole during the party but if his lover thought he was going to be like Penelope Garcia, he had another thing coming. "Quid pro quo Aaron; if I suck it up now, I expect you to suck it up later tonight."

There was a look of confusion on the other man's face and Dave watched as a look of dawning came over his features. "God Dave! Can't you go five minutes without thinking about sex?"

"Not since I was thirteen," he said with a wicked grin.

"Fine," Hotch huffed, "If you do this for me, I'll return the favor in the bedroom."

Dave's grin broadened, "It's a pleasure doing business with you, Aaron."

xxxxxxxxxx

The next three hours were better than Dave had imagined they would be. After the requisite flipping on the lights and yelling surprise, there was the well-wishing on his upcoming year, the assurances to both Garcia and Jack that he had no idea that a surprise party had been planned for that night and the greetings to his mother and holy friend.

After the initial surprise, Garcia and Jack kept them busy with birthday party games, but they weren't the new games that the kids played nowadays, no, they were more traditional…they were some of the games he remembered from his youth. They started with pin the tail on the donkey, and seeing Aaron stumbling around the living room blindfolded and holding a tail while trying to aim for the wall…well, that just about made up for having to attend and pretend to be happy about the party. As the man stumbled about, Dave cursed himself for not learning the video function of his camera, but he cheered up when he saw no fewer than three of his team members recording the moment with large grins on their faces.

After pin the tail on the donkey, they moved outside for more physical games and, to his surprise, Penelope had set up portable floodlights so they didn't have to use flashlights to see where they were going. They started with wheelbarrow races and the team was amused to see him and Aaron as partners for that game. The team knew about their relationship, but they kept it out of the office, so they weren't used to seeing them _together_ together. After the wheelbarrow race there was a sack race, which JJ won by tackling Reid, and a three-legged race, which he and Jack won. Finally, Garcia called a halt in the physical games an herded them back into the cabin.

Once inside, she made him wear a pointy party hat, which everyone took pictures of, and then she brought out a police themed birthday cake that looked as though it had been made for a five year old. As she set it down in front of him, he realized he appreciated all of the effort she had put in to making his birthday special so he smiled at her and whispered, "Thanks Kitten, this is the best birthday ever!" She beamed with happiness as she lit the candles.

Once the candles were lit, Jack jumped in his lap and exclaimed, "That's a LOT of candles, Uncle Dave; you must be REALLY old!"

He didn't know who laughed harder at that statement of fact, Jimmy or Derek, but both of them went on his mental shit list and he silently vowed payback for both of them. Once the ruckus had died down, they sang happy birthday to him and he and Jack blew out all of the candles, although it took two tries.

After cake and ice cream, they played a couple of rounds of birthday bingo before everyone began making their excuses to leave. They all wished him one more happy birthday before taking their goody bags, courtesy of Jack and Penelope, and leaving.

As soon as everyone was gone, the two men put Jack to bed and then went to the master bedroom where they changed into their pajamas. Dave, citing exhaustion, delayed Aaron's payback until the next night and Hotch was more than happy to agree with him. As he slipped into slumber, Aaron heard Dave rumble quietly, "You know Aaron, your birthday is in less than two months and payback is a bitch!" With that, Dave slipped into dreamland while Hotch's eyes popped open and he spent the next hour worrying about what his lover would plan for his birthday celebration.


End file.
